The Elementals (28 page)

           
"Thank you."

           
He finally put a hand on her shoulder, gently squeezing with the intention of giving her comfort. "I'll wait inside while you say your goodbyes in private."

           
Quickly she placed her hand on top of his. "Please, stay?"

           
"If that's what you prefer." He was confused.

           
"I... I like it when you're here. It helps."

           
"Anything for you." He snapped his mouth closed, as if he had said too much, but she thought he should have said more, but in reality, now was really not the time for that. Later, she would explore whatever she felt between them, an invisible magnet that drew them to each other, an unspoken bond that she couldn't explain if she wanted to. It was the worst time, however, for she wasn't ready to move on from the tragedy that struck her life. From Bryne.

           
 
In turn Terra knelt by each of them. She gave her goodbye and her closure, each personal and meaningful. Each from the bottom of what felt like her frozen heart.

           
She touched Marissa's cheek. In preparation, the coldness of it didn't shock her.

           
She slipped off the stone, kissed the Opal and laid it under her folded palms. "My little sister," she croaked. "Issa, you were always more beautiful, more kind, more... Everything that I wasn't. Aunt Gwen has said that your emotions put you at a child's level, but it set you ahead of us in so many ways. You were able to see the beauty in things that we had missed, the goodness in people that didn't seem all that good.

           
"I love you. I miss you." She kissed her forehead.

           
When she was next to Era she brushed her silvery white hair from her shoulder. It splayed over the grass, giving her the look that she was a fallen angel. As beautiful as she was, it was not too hard to believe.

           
"You were no less of a sister to me than Marissa was. You respected me being the leader from the very beginning, but I think you were the true leader. I couldn't always help Marissa, I couldn't give her what seemed so easy for you. I'm grateful that you could. I... I've been so worried about this family that it clouded my judgment and putting you all first. I wanted this over with and I wish I could have all that time back. I would spend more with you and Marissa.” She took off the necklace and like she did with Marissa, she placed it under her hands, securing the Green Aventurine.

           
Over her head she took off the last of her family's stones. In her clenched hand she held the Carnelian. It was ungraceful the way she plopped next to Bryne, but at the look of his uncharacteristic pacific expression, she lost all feeling in her legs. He should have been standing there, kissing her or bothering her, anything other than lying motionless the way he was. Her knees throbbed but she didn't pay any mind, not taking her eyes off of him. She wanted to see his eyes, the lovely emerald that looped the pitch black pupils, the Earthy brown, the way they saw into her, the fire that erupted from them when he was angry.

           
Slowly, Terra placed her hand in Bryne’s. It was too cold, too stiff. The tears she kept at bay broke the dam then. Something inside of her broke, the emotion she controlled, all of the things that she kept inside of her. That overflowing lake became an ocean, and she crumpled beside him, gasps and her muffled screams in his shoulder.

           
Her sisters, Bryne. How unfair it all was, for them to leave her behind. How angry she was that they knew and they never told her! There had to be another way, and one day, when her overactive and contemplating mind figured it out, she would hate herself all the more. Yet, what was done was done, and nothing could ever take it back. That was the worst punishment of all. She couldn't change it, she would forever have to live with "could haves," and "maybes," and settle with the ending they had, and the one that wouldn't happen for her.

           
A hand gripped her shoulder, pulling her back, away from Bryne. Through her watery gaze, she saw Erick for a split second before he enveloped her in his arms. The warmth there was incredible, but it was unlike the sweltering heat that she got from Bryne. It felt oddly and securely right, and that hurt as well, but It would be the last time that she would compare those two.

           
His neckline was sopped from her streaming tears, the back of his fitted black t-shirt bunched in her fists. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." She didn't know who she was speaking to, Erick for ruining his shirt or for everything else that she was sorry for. She would spend the rest of her life trying to forgive herself for her mistakes and the chances that she undoubtedly missed.

           
Terra was recovering though. She broke, that was one of those stupid steps. She would heal, gradually but certainly she would.

           
With his fingers he combed through her wild and tangled hair, his attempts to hush her, to soothe her. He did a wonderful job of it. "It'll be okay, Terra. You're not alone," he whispered just louder than her weeping.

           
He was right, of course. She wasn't... She wasn't alone. She had him, Erick.

           
When he figured that she was calmed, he hooked his arm under hers and lifted her to her feet. She wiped off her backside, and hands on her thighs and took a deep breath. "I'm okay," Terra reassured him.

           
She stood in front of the three of them, speaking to their void bodies but trusting that their spirits were there listening. “I'm sorry to all of you. I'll always feel like there's something more I should've done. Found a way to keep us all together. I'm sorry for not spending more time with you, for not being more part of the family mentally – without the worry. I'm sorry for many things. These stones won't give you back your life, but they were yours, not mine, and if I could, I'd give back your powers too. I know you forgive me, you told me,” she smiled, her fingers linking with Erick's.

           
The sunshine daisy in the brightly lit windowsill waved from the breeze sweeping through the cracks to the small room. The wallpaper was green with yellow aliens, yellow spaceships zooming overhead. The floor was an un - matching beige giving it the appearance that someone got sick all over it. The one light above was low, flickering unappetizing.

           
A little boy with tousled blond hair, dark hazel eyes, emerald encircling the pupils, just like Bryne's. He was a funny boy, for such a bad rash on his arm he was smiling and laughing. Just as he was in her vision years ago, she doubted him and her abilities and she never would again.

           
Terra contemplated more than once how Marissa could hope that her visions wouldn't come true, as if they hadn't any other time. As if it could be any other way... Now she knew. It was ironically...
 
human.

           
Expertly, Terra daubed the green paste on the red blotches. She took a white patch and taped it over it. "Better," she asked with a grin.

           
He nodded enthusiastically, and she worried that he'd cause head injury.

           
"Thank you so much," he said in his thick English accent. "It feels loads better!"

           
"Then I've done my job."

           
The boy hopped from his bed and to the floor, his mother giving his back a pat as he sprinted out to play. She thanked them too, shaking each of their hands.

           
It had been nine years since the death of Terra's sisters and her love, Bryne, and of course the defeat of Hadrian. It had been seven years since the death of Bryne's grandmother, Judy Spark. She was buried next to her son in the make-shift graveyard in the back of the studio apartment, in the tiny backyard.

           
It was one of many, of the hardest things that Terra had to do, but she moved from that apartment. It was not as though her family was there, not even in body, for even four months later, they would have joined the dirt. The memories of their deaths, it haunted her. Whenever she went into the bathroom, or the living room, the memory of their bodies were there.

           
Erick and Terra bought new furniture, they started everything new. On the day of their move, she buried her Amber stone in the corner of the high fence. She didn't want the reminder of who she was, for she was someone new. She was no longer Terra the Earth Element. She was simply Terra Webb.

           
As for Aunt Gwen, she visited the graves once. She talked with her about what a shame it was and attempted to justify her reasoning for not telling them the entirety of the prophecy. That in order to do what they needed to do, they couldn't know what they were ultimately headed towards. That it was better that way.

           
It was all poor excuses in Terra's mind. She didn't want the excuses, or justification. There could be no justification for her sisters and Bryne's death. There was nothing at all anyone could say that would make it better. It was not as though they were lying sick in bed for many weeks. They were healthy and young, and kind. They didn't deserve it, they weren't suffering, there was no good reason. There were no scapegoats.

           
She didn't speak to Aunt Gwen very often. The anger and the hurt, the old wounds could not be surpassed. They were on Christmas card terms. Neither of them complained about the situation. It worked out well for both of them. Her aunt did ask if she had a place to stay, that night she visited her other nieces. Terra was happy that she could tell her yes. At least she wouldn't be living alone in a house that wasn't hers. There was no coming home to Aunt Gwen. Living with her, she came home to Marissa and Era. Without them, there was not a reason in the world why she could not find another place. And she did, with Erick and as long as dear Judy had lived.

           
The house they moved into was lovely, a small cottage in a wild suburban setting that appeared to be cutting into the midst of the woods with the trees and wildlife that surrounded it. Adoring the place more than she had any other, she planted the small tree in the backyard. The Pine grew to be strong, and every year in the winter, she decorated it with treats for the birds and other small life to feed on. It kept her warm to be near it, she wanted it to do the same for others.

           
It was every night that she parked herself under it with one of Marissa's books, if not leafing through the pages and allowing her mind to float to the past where she would lie bare footed on the couch.

           
Terra did move on. It took a year of her living with Erick to finally admit that they were more than friends. She told everyone that he was living there as a friend, to help her through a hard time in her life, that he was doing the duty of the Kin, but it was more than that. Although they didn't kiss, or show many signs of being anything other than friends, there was one sign that gave them away, and that was the furtive looks they cast to one another. It was the hugs at night when she felt that she would die of heartbreak. It was the understanding without truly knowing what she was going through. It was everything that he did, cooking dinner, setting the table, pronouncing his arrival every time he walked in, the patience with teaching her to be a Healer, the belief he had in her, the loaning of his ear and shoulder, his hand. It was almost too good to be true, but it was true, it was real. She knew it was real when she had to push his magazines off the couch to sit down. That was when she realized he wasn't perfect, and that was a comfort.

           
When she stacked up the magazines at the end of the couch, and he came home, she kissed him. He had one foot inside, the knob in his hand, the keys jangling in the other, but she held his face in her hands, pressing herself against him, his lips against hers.

           
Once the shock subsided, he kissed her back, holding her tight against him, tasting her lips as if he was starving. As if he had been waiting as long as she had.